Palestine: Thousands of dunums north of Dead Sea to be taken, Palestinians revive Land Day & 80-year-old man attacked

NAZARETH, (PIC)– Haaretz newspaper revealed Israeli moves to seize 140,000 dunums of Palestinian land north of the Dead Sea and register it as a state land.

According to the newspaper on Friday, the Israeli government intends to make these dunums of land under the authority of its army, while the Israeli civil administration rejected the objections filed by the owners of this land against this annexation.

It said that these dunums of land are located in a politically sensitive area.

The Palestinian natives of villages, Za’tara, Sawahra, Deir Saleh and Tekoa, near this land had officially asked to register it as their property, but the civil administration also declined their request and declared it as a state land.

The Palestinian people are reviving on Saturday the 37th anniversary of the Land Day in and outside Palestine in massive rallies.

37 years have passed on the “Land Day” which Palestinians commemorate annually to reassure their ownership of Palestine. This day was founded in 1976, when the Israeli occupation decided to expropriate thousands of Palestinian lands, specifically in Galilee.

Despite the peacefulness of the demonstrations, the Israeli military’s response was violent and led to several deaths and injuries.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement issued a statement, published by Paltoday, in which it stressed the importance of adhering to the land and sanctities, assuring that “defending them is a sacred duty which we derive from Islam.”

The Islamic Jihad added that “the choice of resistance and challenge is the only path for getting back our seized right.”

For its part, Hamas Movement stated that “the Palestinian people have the right to stay in their land and to get back all the lands occupied since 1948,” indicating that “occupation does not justify Zionist attempts to seize those lands, build settlements, and displace natives.”

Hamas added in a statement issued Saturday that “the public uprising of our people … on the 30th of March, 1976, assured their ultimate rejection to the Zionist plans to rob their lands and try to judaize them.”

“This occasion has formed a new stage in the confrontation of the Zionist enemy, which is public uprisings. From here, we stress the importance of armed resistance at this current phase, as well as the change of the balance of power in the conflict against the Zionist enemy,” the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement added.

In parallel, Fatah Movement considered “this occasion is considered to all the Palestinians, in Palestine and place of exile, a clash of cultural conflict, a conflict between the owners and defenders of the land… and the culture of extermination, expansion, and renouncement of other peoples’ rights, which the Zionist occupation symbolizes…”

Fatah added in a statement that “Land day is like an alarm to Israel’s policies which target land and people in order to achieve the settlement dream and the establishment of a Jewish state.”

“For us, this day will always symbolize the culture of steadfastness and victory,” it added.

———————————————————————————-

Settlers attack 80-year-old man near Tulkarem

TULKAREM (Ma’an) — A group of settlers attacked an 80-year-old man tending his land in Tulkarem on Friday, medics said.

Hasan Barhoush was in a private field in the village of Kafr al-Labad when settlers attacked him. Barhoush was moderately wounded in the assault and taken to Thabit Thabit hospital in Tulkarem, medics told Ma’an.

Kafr al-Labad is located near the illegal Israeli settlement of Enav.

Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine and rarely punished by Israeli authorities.

Annual figures compiled by Israeli rights group Yesh Din have repeatedly shown that nine out of 10 police investigations about settler crimes fail to lead to a prosecution.